Sing a Song of Secrets and Shards
by Wolf-Shadow's-Ghost
Summary: Lara and Sam cope with life after the island, healing one another with words and song. One-shot drabble, part of my Femslash challange on Tumblr.


Tumblr FemSlash Writing Challenge Day 4

Prompt: Nonspecific inspiration from the Band 'Of Monsters and Men'.  
Game: Tomb Raider 2013  
Pairing: Lara/Sam  
Genre: Angst, fluff, slight songfic  
Rating: E  
Words: 1,279

Not Super happy with the ending, and I had no beta, so there's probably a lot of mistakes. But I had inspiration so I went with it.

Also, Lara/Sam is the cutest new pairing, Love it.

* * *

"This should be our song." Sam murmured quietly.

Listening to both the song and Sam with half an ear, Lara cracked a grin and distractedly asked. "Why?"

She felt Sam shrug from where she reclined against Lara's back.

"It just sounds like us."

There was a long moment of silence in which the only sound besides the music was the scratch of Lara's pen, then Sam started softly singing along.

"Don't listen to a word I say, the screams all sound the same."

Lara joined for the next line, her voice quiet and slightly melancholy. "and though the truth may bury us, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore."

She could hear the smile in Sam's voice now that she had stopped scribbling notes madly down in her field journal.

"I knew you knew the words."

Chuckling lightly in her throat, Lara adjusted the map on the desk before her and leaned slightly back from where she sat at the edge of the bed, forcing Sam to sit up straighter. "How could I not? You play it enough that I might be able to write the individual notes down, and I don't even play anything."

"… I can't… can't sleep when it's quiet…."

Lara froze, shards of memories cutting at her mind, night terrors that didn't wait 'till the sun set to haunt her, haunt them.

She felt Sam shift so that she was curled in a ball, her head resting against Lara's shoulder blades. "I like this band, even their name; in film terms, they fit our story symbolically, they parallel the major things we… went through."

Lara said nothing, her breathing just a little too quick.

They coped in different ways, here in Croft manor which Lara had formally loathed for it's quiet and empty halls.

Lara planned her next expedition, her return to the island to face the last of her fears, to drag the dark truths kicking and screaming into the open air and throw them to the world. Fundamentally broken, yet whole in a way she now associated with 'Being a Croft'.

She pored over her books, her maps, funding paperwork, remembering every detail in her mind, writing down every little artifact she'd found and then again hidden on the island, all in preparation to go back.

Even two months after disembarking the rescue ship, she still wasn't home, she was still back on the island, and she had to go back one more time, one last adventure to complete there, one last farewell to be had.

After that…

She'd study her father's research, find new heights to climb, new secrets to unmask.

She was a Croft.

Sam said nothing about the island, never once argued, or tried to pursued Lara not to go back. She skated around on vague mentions and hints.

She stood in the sunlight streaming through the huge bay widows in the grand hall with tears in her eyes but did not cry, played with her cameras and programs and old projects, talking about film techniques and odd cult movies in great detail. She laughed too loudly at things and talked to her parents via web cam daily, but never talked about going home, back to America, even though both her parents asked again and again. She never left Lara's side for longer than thirty minutes, and Lara didn't like when she wasn't there after the first five minutes.

Lara hmmmed slightly and closed her journal, taking a moment to glance up at her- their room.

They slept together, the only time either of them could close their eyes long enough to drift away was when the other was near. Sam kept the lamps on, 'it's too dark, like the cell, like the caves, like _her _eyes' Lara had all but sewn the curtains permanently shut. 'Too exposed' her mind would whisper, shooting out memories of bullets and arrows whizzing around her head, of the many times a lucky shot could have ended her.

The room was a mess, Lara's antique desk pressed against the wall where her nightstand used to be, parallel to the bed so that she could wake up, roll over and resume work, Sam's own desk, a foldable plastic table, sitting up against the wall opposite the bed, laden down with multiple screens and keyboards and cameras, a few trays sat in a chair near the door plates and silverware marked with bits of food.

They kept the floor clear, instinctively making sure they could run, could flee without tripping, but never admitting it out load, and they never let the trays go so long as to start smelling, but still was it rare that they left for more than long enough to get lunch or a snack, or to get the mail.

All haphazard and yet perfectly functional, so very them.

Lara doubted what either of them were doing was very healthy, but they coped.

"Of men and monsters," she replied quietly, then, "I know, I know their name goes the other way around," as she felt Sam begin to protest, "but that's not how it went with us."

There was a long moment of quiet, the music fading into the background as they both struggled not to fall back into memoires. Lara felt Sam trace the still sensitive scars on her shoulders and arms, glanced back to catch a glimpse of the bluish hue patters on Sam's skin that had refused to fade, no matter that Sam had scrubbed 'till she bled.

Marked and marred, but alive.

"I agree with you though," Lara continued, tilting her head back to look at the rich red cover of her canopy bed, "it is like us, but I think I want a different one to be our song."

"Oh?" and there was a trace of humor in the American accent. Small, but still there. Progress from a few weeks ago.

Extracting her legs from under the desk, Lara slowly twisted in place until she faced Sam, the two of them resting with knees bent and the unmade sheets swirling in waves around their legs.

Sam had dark circles under her eyes, her hair was combed messily so that it rested behind her ears, and she wore a too loose white night shirt scored with mint green lines, but she was still the single most beautiful thing Lara had seen.

Reaching out a hand to cup Sam's cheek-she felt warm and gratified when Sam relaxed and leaned into the touch-, Lara sang softly.

"and as the world comes to an end

I'll be here to hold your hand

'Cause you're my queen and I'm your lionheart."

Sam let out a sound that was half sob, half laugh and reached out one hand to cup Lara's face, the other resting on Lara's knee, and they leaned closer in unison, sharing a kiss that was as much love as pain.

Breaking apart, they stayed in contact, their foreheads resting against one another.

They needed separation for a while; Lara knew that, needed to face their nightmares without the other close by.

Lara would go back to the island, Sam would return to America, and they would grow and relearn to live as the new people they were.

But they would come back together after that, helping to pick up each other's shards and fit them back into place, even when it meant using bits from themselves to heal the other.  
Separate to strengthen and chase the darkness away, come together to be whole, to be loved.

And that promise, Lara thought as they tangled their bodies together, falling back onto the bed to hold one another close and fall asleep to alternative rock and still lit lamps, was her reason for surviving.

To hold her queen.


End file.
